A Long Time Coming...

This is the story of a stone... a beautiful Ocean Jasper cabochon that I simply "had to have".  Ocean Jasper is one of those stones that really calls to me (when its a lovely specimen), but can be a bit expensive compared to the other stones I work with... so I bought this stone about 2 years ago (??) and I drew out a design shortly after that, but I wasn't quite ready to get started on it then...

In this first picture (above) you get a decent look at the stone (though the color on this photo isn't very good), and I'm starting to make the "frame" for the setting.

In this second picture are some spheres I've made out of Silver, Copper, and a mix of Silver & Copper called Shibuichi (custom mixed).  I had read about melting silver & copper together to end up with yellow/pink-ish colors...

Above you see my frame starting to take place, my various spheres I've made, and my rough drawing with notes...

Here the metalwork is all soldered (this took many steps), but the metal is not yet cleaned - you can see how oxidized the Copper & Shibuichi spheres can get...

Here the metal has been cleaned (still needs final buff & polish) and the stone is ready to set into the bezel.  That white stuff it's setting on is Jett Set, it hold things in place for setting a backless bezel (my preference).

The final piece.  I made a custom bail, I also coated the spheres with a protective coating to keep the Copper and Shibuichi from oxidizing.

A close-up, I decided to show the cavities on two of the spheres, it seems to mimic the stone & also reveals the nature of the item being hand made (not machine manufactured).

I named her "Tranquility", this is by far my most expensive piece to date due to both the expense of materials & the time/difficulty of the piece, I'm offering her at $460.